Sinclair-Mackenzie
by BIFF1
Summary: Mac's little brother is getting married before her. That's not even the bad part, Ryan is marrying Lauren. That's right Mac's brother is marrying her sister and she is being forced back to Neptune for the event. Alone. Leaving Mac with all her Sinclair related demons and a need for a good stiff drink. A MaDi character study? A gift for a friend that kinda got out of hand.
1. Sinclair-Mackenzie

**Sinclair- Mackenzie**

* * *

"You're sure you can't come with me? Free food and booze?" Mac is trying very hard not to beg but she's sure it's still coming off that way.

Veronica is smiling at her loading her suitcase on the weight scale.

"Just to the airport Mac, you know I have to be in court tomorrow."

"Every time I hear you say that I have to remind myself that your a lawyer now and I won't be called in as a character witness."

"Yeah now I'm definitely not going."

She must look miserable because in true marshmallow form Veronica pulls her into a hug.

"You'll be fine Mac."

"That's easy for you to say you don't have to go back to Neptune to watch your brother marry your 'sister'!"

Okay that was definitely too loud people are looking at her funny and Veronica has her hand clamped to her mouth.

"Call me when you land." Veronica just smiles brightly and takes her leave.

Leaving her standing in the airport with all the tourists on their way back from there _fabulous_ stay in new York city. All of which must think she's on her way back to the Ozarks. She could swear she hears a pig call.

* * *

First class is absolutely worth the extra coin.

A bright faced handsome man stops at her seat in his attendants uniform and asks her if she would like a drink, sparkling apple juice, coffee, soda?

"My little brother is getting married before me and making me go back to my home town without a date can we age up those drinks a little, Roger?"

The smile on his face shifts into something genuine, "we absolutely can Miss. Mackenzie."

"Thank you."

She doesn't see the bottom of her tiny cup until they are about to land.

She is absolutely flying with this company forever.

Roger even makes sure she gets into her cab all right. If he wasn't leaving for the east coast in four hours she'd invite _him_ to the wedding.

* * *

The cab pulls up to her parents house and she really considers just not getting out of the car but the cab driver is already pulling her suitcase out of the trunk.

There are a bunch of cars in the driveway and she recognizes Ryan's and that's about it.

God they're in there.

The Sinclairs.

She steps out of the cab and can't help but find it funny that she'd be standing there even if she hadn't been switched.

She rolls her stupid little rolly bag up the sidewalk. This is going to be awful but it will end.

It will end.

She opens the front door like normal and the house is a burst of sound.

She rolls her bag in and closes the door behind her. She just needs to greet everyone and then fake some sort of airplane related fatigue and hide in her room until everything is over.

Until her _sister_ becomes her _sister in law._

_God that was fucked up._

She gets four steps down the hall when a pair of hands grab onto her leg.

Looking down she finds a small blonde child has attached themselves to her leg.

Sitting down hard on her shoe. Hands hot and clammy against her skin.

"Mom!" She yells out, "is someone missing a child!"

"Cindy! We're in the kitchen!" Her mother's voice bursts out happily from deep inside the house.

There's a clamour of noise and at the end of the hall Madison Sinclair appears.

She looks way better than she was prepared for. Its like she bathes in virgins blood for Christ sakes.

She lifts her leg and the child giggles happily at being lifted from the ground.

"I believe this is yours?"

Madison pulls her eyes from her and she watches them light up as she looks at the child.

Madison crosses the short distance and removes the child easily from her leg. Setting the...boy? On her hip. God she's been jutting out that hip for years and it appears she's making good use of that talent.

"Benny this is your Aunt _Cindy_." She pulls at the name and the smile that crosses her face is that same cruel smile she remembers from high school.

Benny's fist shoots out and surprised Mac bumps it with her own. The kids face just seems to be the happiest thing she's ever seen.

"Where's _your_ family?" She asks looking around Mac and her fingers dig into her palm waiting for the punchline.

Just remember you _can not_ punch her in the face until _after_ the wedding photos.

"Oh right. You don't have one...is it true that you're not even seeing anyone? Not that I can really blame the rest of the world."

"I've been busy." She tells her moving around her to the stairs. Her suitcase slams unhappily on every stair and she makes no move to quiet it.

Pushing the door to her bedroom open she feels sick.

There are suitcases already on her bed, in fact her grandfather is taking a nap on the bed.

_Oh god._

She steps back out of her room and closes the door.

Leaving her suitcase in the hall she barrels down the stairs, her shoulder slamming into the same piece of hallway it always does when she swings around the banister.

She skids to a stop in the kitchen doorway.

Both families are at the table, Benny is climbing all over the handsome brunette that had the ill fortune to end up with Madison, her mother and her biological mother are sitting beside each other gushing over the grandchild and Ryan and Lauren are doing there best to play cards with her fathers... God this is just surreal and she can tell by the insane motherly calm all over Madison that she doesn't understand why this is weird at all.

She's alone in bizarre-o world. She's considering shattering her world just so she isn't alone in this sick feeling but being alone is probably better than being with Madison.

"Mom...please tell me you did _not_ sixteen candles me."

"I don't know what that's supposed to mean honey..."

"Don't be silly Mac no ones going to think your boobs got bigger." Ryan snickers from the table and Madison follows suit.

She digs her nails further into her palm and takes a breath.

"Where am I sleeping mom?"

She looks between both women and her mother seems to notice.

"Honey I thought you might share with your cousin May..."

"No."

Cousin May likes to get handsy in the middle of the night and just because they aren't actually blood does not make it any less creepy.

She is not about that.

"I'd offer our house but its full up with out-of-town family already." Mrs. Sinclair offers and all eyes look at Madison.

"Your _welcome_ to stay with us Ghost world if you don't mind Benny...he has night terrors."

"I'll find a hotel or something."

_Something_ being sleeping in Ryan's SUV.

She picks Ryan's keys off the kitchen counter.

"I'm taking your car and I'm going to find a place to stay..." She knows her voice is too dark and sharp but she can't pull it back, this whole thing has her on edge and the airplane booze isn't taking off any of the edges like she had hoped.

Lauren looks up at her with big wet eyes and she bites the inside of her mouth.

She sighs.

"I'll be back in a couple of hours for dinner."

* * *

Ryan helps her load the suitcase into his car.

"Sorry Mackie." He smiles lopsidedly at her handing her his keys. His fraternity letters dangle between their hands.

"Its okay...I'd rather have an excuse not to be around Madison."

"Oh yeah you went to school with her right?"

"Yeah." If only their connection ended there.

She grabs the Greek letters and pulls them from his loose grip.

"It's only for the weekend and then you can jet off back to the big apple and immerse yourself in _culture_."

He says it like a bad word, like he knows she just goes to late night movies with Veronica and she hasn't done anything properly social in a year and a half and it was an office party.

"You know you can come visit me right..."

"I know Cindy. It's just its been weird for years..."

Its been weird since she found out her actual sibling is still in the house with her real mom and dad.

"You know I love you right. I mean why else would I have bailed out your _entire _pledge class..."

"Oh god please do not talk about _hell night_. Lauren doesn't know and I'd rather she never found out its embarrassing."

His face is flushed at the memory and it gives her some sort of big sister super power.

"So I guess I should rewrite my speech then?"

"Cindy!"

She moves around the car.

"Oh come on the part where you thought that rock was just a really quiet cat was adorable."

"Cindy I'm serious."

She just laughs at him and get a into his car.

She's several blocks away before she realizes she doesn't know where she's going.


	2. Accomadations

**Accommodations**

* * *

"What do you mean you're full up?" She hisses, at the fresh-faced desk clerk at the Neptune Grande.

"I'm sorry Miss but there are two separate weddings taking place here this weekend. We've been at capacity since wedensday...perhaps you'd have better luck elsewhere."

She doesn't say a motel but her eyes fucking say it and Mac just snaps!

"You find me a room right god damn now or so help me I will ruin you're life _Kelly._ Do you know who I am? Do you know what I do for a living?"

She's causing a scene she knows it but the scared look on the clerks face is worth it.

"I...I...I don't have the authority to bump anyone..." she stammers out.

"Well you find me someone who does our I'm going to put this whole damn block on security lock down!"

She could do it. She could. Her company provides electronic security for half the hotels in new york and she's been back dooring her way into Kane Software crap since she was fourteen and bored.

She just really, really needs something to go right for her.

Anything.

She can feel the tears form in her eyes as she looks down at her shoes. She steps back away from the desk, she'll just sleep in the suv.

She'll just...she'll just...

She turns on her heel and starts towards the front doors and slams right into someone and lands hard on her ass, the rip of fabric clawing at her nerves.

"I'm sor-" she starts looking up at the wall of person she'd just slammed into. "Dick?"

Great that is exactly what this day needed. He looks really good too, Gawd is it in the water over here?

"Mac?" Dick extends his hand to her and in desperation she takes a hold of it and lets him pull her easily to her feet, she teeters on her heels and puts her hand against Dick's chest to keep from falling back down.

He has got to be at the bottom of the list of people she wants to witness a meltdown, right above Madison she supposes.

"No room in the inn?" He asks his eyes drawn to her thigh were her ripped skirt has exposed pale skin and the frill of her lucky underwear.

Yeah they've been super lucky so far. The best thing that's happened so far today is Roger the no doubt _fabulous_ flight attendant getting her airplane drunk. She supposes maybe the traffic was good too but that hardly qualifies as _lucky underwear_ lucky.

"It appears so."

"What are you even doing in town?" He asks and she watches as his eyes drag across her body, taking in the shape of her body, and the state of her and it's just not fair she'd been drinking on a plane and was dealing with a very stressful day, "Don't you live in new york with Ronnie?"

"My brother's getting married."

That pulls his eyes to hers, and she brushes violently at the tears clinging to her lashes.

"Oh right, I always forget that you're Ryan's sister."

She looks at the pi sigma sigma letters attached to her brothers key chain.

Right.

Ryan and Dick were _brothers_. She tends to block out her little brothers bff status with his alumni brother.

"Are you going to the wedding?"

"Yeah, are you kidding? Bridesmaids are so easy." his smile is wide and easy and it's times like this that she understands exactly why Dick gets the amount of action he gets.

There's an easy charm to him that just falls off him.

She's not sure if it's the left over wine or the burn of Madison's eyes still on her skin but she smirks up at him, "Did you want to get a head start on that?"

Dick's smile falls and she watches him swallow with difficulty.

"Are you fucking with me?"

"Not yet."

* * *

"Okay so... the flight was fine." she tells her phone watching the bedside alarm click over. She should go back to her parents for dinner right away. She just kind of feels like lead, heavy. Dick's arm falls across her hip and drags her across the bed.

_Yeah and? How is everyone? You're parents? You're brother, you're sister? What's it like being back in your old room. It's so weird right?_

"I'm not in my old room..." She turns and watches Dick pull the zipper of her bridesmaids dress down with his teeth.

Okay, yeah that's really hot.

He had insisted that she put the dress on, he wanted to fuck her in it. She hadn't taken much convincing. He had looked at her with darkened eyes, like he wanted no one more than her and even if that was a skill he'd picked up after all his time scoring with sluts, it was a welcome lie. It had been the most wanted she'd felt in a long time.

_Where are you if you're not in your room? What happened?_

"They sixteen candled me! They gave my room to my grandfather and wanted me to stay with May the Midnight Molester so I hit up the Grande."

Dick is laughing at that, the vibrations of him going right through her.

_Are you with someone?_

"Must be the tv." she swats at Dick to stop and shut up and wait but he seems to be spurred on my the act and pushes the skirt of the dress up and is pressing his hot mouth to the inside of her thigh.

_You're at the Grande? That must be weird? How did you get a room on such short notice?_

"I just worked some Mac-Magic..." she had meant to say more but Dick's breath is hot against her damp underwear.

lucky indeed.

_You okay Mac? I know this must be hard for you..._

God she hoped it was hard for her...

_But you're family loves you and this is a great way to get to know the Sinclairs...you know minus Madison_

"Uh huh..." She props herself up on her elbows and can't see much more than violet silk and blonde hair, his tongue presses against her and she almost drops the phone, "I...I have to call you back later...love you." She tells Veronica absently and hangs up before she can hear the response.

Turning the cell off she tosses it to the far end of the bed.

She moves her leg over his shoulder scraping her heel up the back of him, he loses focus and pulls up from her, her leg still sitting on his shoulder.

"What the fuck Mac?"

"You wanted me to wear them." she smirks at him pulling him forward with her leg, "I have to go soon for dinner there's no time for that."

He smiles brightly at her, "You are officially my favourite."

"Good because I need a place until my flight on Monday morning."

He pulls her underwear aside and presses into her, "I think that can be arranged."


	3. Three sugars and a splash of milk

**Three sugars and a splash of milk**

* * *

The dinner goes pretty much the way she expected, a bright focus on Ryan and Lauren's wedding in the morning, Benny, and her current work in new york.

Madison's husband must not be from around her because he's far too nice and she wonders if maybe she baby trapped him but he doesn't look sad or angry when he looks at his blonde wife and as much as she hates to admit it Madison seems to be a good mother.

She was bound to be good at something, eventually.

The Sinclair's are peppering her with questions and the whole thing seems horribly obvious to her, but no one else seems to take much notice.

They ask her about her work and her personal life and if she's read any good books lately and if she enjoys travel.

She notices instantly that she takes her coffee the same way as Mr. Sinclair, three sugars and a splash of soy milk.

She excuses herself at that, walking quickly through the loud house for the refuge of the front porch.

Dinner's over she can leave as soon as someone is willing to drop her off at the hotel. Maybe she can get Dick to pick her up. She'll have to promise_ roadhead_ probably but it's a price she is definitely considering.

She's staring at her phone typing in the number for the hotel when the porch swing moves with someone's weight.

Turning she see's Mr. Sinclair.

"You okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Carol told me that you know...about the hospital..."

"Yeah..."

"It's nice to meet you Cindy." he holds out his hand to her and she takes it. He pulls her into a hug and it feels like she's falling apart, "I'm proud of you kiddo."

"Thanks..." she wants to say dad, she does but it feels like a betrayal to the man inside that raised her, the one that taught her how to share, and how to build a fire, and how to drive, the man who picked her up from the hotel after the police had finished questioning her and hadn't said anything. Just held her close and signed her up for self defence lessons.

She pulls back from the man who gave her her hair color and her taste buds and wishes she knew him.

He brushes her hair away from her face and his eyes are red and she wonders what her life would be if she'd grown up with him and Carol and Lauren.

It just fucking hurts because she feels cheated and when she feels cheated she feels guilty because she loves her parents and Ryan.

"You should grab a sweater if you're going to stay out her much longer." he tells her moving from the swing and she finds it funny because her father would have brought out a sweater with him.

He would have known that she wasn't coming back in.

When the door closes on him she calls the hotel and asks for Dick's penthouse.

_Yo_

"Can you come get me." She tries to pull her tears back but her voice is still thick, "I don't want to be here any more."'

_Uh sure...I'll be right there...your parent's place right?_

"Yeah...Dick...thank you."

_Whatever Mackers this ride is going to cost you some serious roadside sex._

His voice is light and she's not sure if he's trying to lighten the mood or not but he manages it anyway.

He hangs up and she goes back inside to grab her purse and make her excuses to leave.

When she finds her purse Benny has it in his lap on the kitchen floor the penthouse key card in his mouth.

"Benny. no." she tells him what she hopes is firmly, "Madison could you maybe get my hotel key out of your kids mouth?"

Madison closes the distance easily with her long legs and kneels down beside her kid, she slides her bag off of Benny's lap eyeing the designer handbag with admiration for a moment before she schools her features and gets the boy to spit the card out into her hand.

"This is a Grande card."

"Yeah and?"

"It's the penthouse."

"_Cindy!_ That's way too expensive we could have found you a spot." Her mother tells her, eyes wide.

"It was the only room available. It's not the big a deal its only for the weekend." She takes the card from Madison's fingers, wipes the kid slobber off it and drops it into her bag,

"The penthouse isn't available." Madison clarifies for the room.

_Great._

_Just great._

She stands there under their collective gazes and wishes she was very much not there.

"Grandpa and Gran are in one and the other belongs to Dick Casablancas and I'm fairly certain that you aren't shacking up with my grandparents Mac."

"Cindy are you staying with some stranger?"

"No I'm not."

"You're staying with Dick?" Ryan asks confused, after all he and Dick are friends and apparently the idea is just out of his gasp or at least the idea of Dick handing over use of his room to someone he isn't having sex with is. After all he knows him.

There is a honk from the front and thank fucking god. She backs up out of the room, "I'll be at there at 7, good night! love you." she practically runs out of the room and cringes at the fact that waiting for her outside is a sports car.

* * *

"You couldn't bring a more conspicuous car?" She asks as he speeds off into the night.

"I'm sorry I didn't realize that I needed to check with you first about which car I use to pick your ass up?" He hisses and she rests her head on the dashboard staring down at her knees.

"I'm sorry it's just...it's hard okay...it's been a bad day."

He pulls over into the parking lot of a park she used to go to with Ryan when they were younger.

"Is this because you're little brother is getting married before you? Cause I mean we're only thirty four it's not that -"

"No. That's not it."

"Then what's you're damage Ghostworld?"

"It's who he's marrying okay? That's what the problem is."

"You'd like Lauren if you talked to her. She's nothing like Madi."

She looks at him with hard eyes, "I know she's nothing like Madison. She's _my_ sister."

"What?"

"Nothing." she bushes it away quickly and when it looks like he's going to pursue the topic she climbs into his lap, "I said it was nothing, okay?"

"Okay." he agree's quietly as she snakes her hands between them to pull his zipper down. Her hand is around him and he whimpers, head falling back against his headrest, "You know I was kidding about the roadside sex right?" he whispers as she pulls him out of his pants and tries to manoeuvre herself into a viable position.

"Oh? I can always stop." She looks up at him and he grabs onto her.

"Don't you dare."


	4. Busted

**Busted**

* * *

The tap of a flashlight against the fogged up glass pulls her out of that weird unfocused state of sex, when the only thing that's in focus is him and his fingers and mouth and what he's doing.

"Fuck." Dick growls, pulling her shirt down and lifting her out of his lap.

She whines at the loss of him and it pulls a smirk across his face as he tries to force himself back into his pants.

There's another tap against the glass.

Dick rolls down the window, "What can I do for you officer." he smiles brightly, pulling her skirt further down her legs as if the man doesn't already know exactly what was going on in there.

The man leans down and reveals that he isn't an officer at all.

Keith Mars leans on the door, folding his arms and she cringes because the whole car smells of sex and sweat and she's sure it's written all over the pair of them.

"Mr. Mars..."

Keith looks right past Dick at her and her stomach tightens, "I don't suppose there's some way I could convince you _not_ to tell Veronica about this?"

"I don't know Mac, she's really worried about you..." he's got that kind of sad fatherly look to him that he's so good at and she just knows he knows _exactly_ why his daughter is so worried.

"I'm fine. I promise."

"You call _this_ fine?" Keith asks pointing at Dick.

"Hey."

He waves Dick's objection away, "They are still you're parents Mac, they raised you, they love you, just remember who you're real family is."

She looks at her lap, "I know..."

"All right, if you need anything you know where I am." He looks at Dick, "I don't think I have to tell you that they won't find your body if you don't treat her right, do I son?"

"No sir." Dick agrees as Keith stands and makes his way back to his own car.

Dick rolls the window back up caging them in the sex smell and starts the car back up.

He doesn't say a thing until they get out of the car at the hotel.

"So were you like switched at birth or something?" He asks and Mac's grip on the door handle comes free and she staggers a little. She looks up at him with wide eyes and his jaw drops, "No way really? I was totally fucking around. That's _messed_."

"Yeah it is."

"So what? You were supposed to be Madi? Okay yeah that would make this wedding weird for you." His eyes kind of glaze over as they walk to the elevator.

He's eerily silent the ride all the way up to the penthouse.

"What?" She asks him finally, leading him into the suite, "What? You got some weird problem with me now?"

He shakes his head and closes the door, "No, I was just thinking about how we could have been having sex like that since high school."

She rolls her eyes and pulls her shirt over her head and drops it to the floor, walking to the bedroom, leaving a trail for him, "That's ridiculous Dick, I'd still be the same person, you and I wouldn't have gotten together."

"Fuck that we totally would have." he grumbles watching from the bedroom door as she climbs onto the bed in her underwear, "You would have been just like all the other girls with too much money and too much time and not enough parental attention. I mean there was a year in junior high when Madison's parents didn't notice she was living in the pool house."

She looks at him as his words really sink in.

She'd be different. She'd always known that but she had always assumed it would be for the better. She'd never once thought that perhaps Madison was such a bitch because of some sort of parenting error. Looking at her mother and father she would never imagine that they would actually bring up a Madison.

Maybe _Madi_ was the one who had been robbed.

Dick drops to the bed and pulls her to him, "now where were we?" He smirks pulling her into his lap.

She looks at him, her fingers in his soft hair, he looked so much more like an adult now, the sadness in him had aged him, she could see it because it had aged her too. He was probably right. If she'd been a Sinclair all this time, an 09er with too much time and too much money and not enough reality, if she'd grown up in that weird 09er bubble things would be different.

Cassidy would have just been Beaver, she would have looked at him different and maybe she would have spared herself some pain but after all this time, in the secrecy of her heart she felt that that pain had been worth it. He was a defining moment she wasn't willing to let go of.

She would have been fucking the elder Casablancas and using Veronica as a salt lick.

No, she had gotten the better deal.

She had grown up in a place that maybe didn't get her as much as the Sinclair's might have but in a place that loved her, that was wholly invested in her. It wasn't like she had needed the Sinclair money as start up capita or anything either. She had never had a problem using her skills to obtain funds.

"Thanks Dick."

His smirk drops and he pushes some of her hair out of her face, he can see what she's saying she's sure of it because for a long second they are connected in a way that has nothing to do with the puzzle pieces of their bodies.

"Yeah...any time." His hands drop to her hips and he slides up into her and she can see him take a special joy in the sound she makes.

* * *

The alarm goes off at far too early o'clock.

She tries to move to stop it but Dicks arm is holding her close, across her body like a seatbelt.

"What the fuck is that..." Dick grumbles into her hair.

"Its called an alarm clock and if you don't know what it is that explains rather a lot about high school and college."

"Ha. Ha. Why is it happening Mackenzie?" His mouth has moved to her neck and his hot breath and wet mouth are doing things to her. Things he must instinctively know about because his hand slides up her leg and she can feel his smile against her skin as he discovers her wet.

He maneuvers himself above her and without a word pushes right into her.

The moan that rips from her throat is low and primal and surprises her.

They don't have time for that...she has to be...

She has to be...

To be...

Somewhere?

She moves with his body her mouth on his skin, her fingers pressing hard into him, her ear by his mouth because _god_ he makes the best sounds.

She would have assumed having sex to the soundtrack of her alarm going off would be awful but it gives Dick a frantic kind of pace that just does it for her.

He pushes her off the edge, body arching, nails down his back, tight wet mess and he pulls out just in time to paint her stomach.

He reaches out and pulls her phone into the bed.

"Make it stop now." He tells her breathlessly his head on her shoulder his body kept up away from the mess he'd made.

She's a little worried that alarm clocks are going to get her hot and bothered now.

She turns the beeping monster off and moves to remove herself from the bed.

"Where are you going? The wedding isn't for hours." Dick grumbles trying to pull her back into the bed. She slaps his hands easily away and pulls on the first shirt available, Dick's.

"The wedding doesn't start for hours for you. I have to spend the morning with Lauren, Madison and my mothers getting my hair done and trying to deflect questions about where and how I spent the night and pretending I don't know the big bad family secret."

Dick shrugs, "As far as family secrets go its tame and you know it. This is Neptune." He stretches and god he is making going back to bed really appealing, "I on the other hand have to go hang out with Ryan and pretend like I haven't had sex with his sister." He sits up in bed and grabs a hold of her waist, turning her back towards him, he presses his mouth against hers solidly, "god you look good like that."

"Like what? I'm a mess and I'm pretty sure I'm getting your..._mess_ all over the inside of this shirt. Oh man I'm probably going to get it in my hair when I take it off." She sighs unhappily sagging against him.

"Shut up and take the compliment Mackenzie." He tells her his hands twisting her hair slowly like he's trying to imagine what kind of mess he can make of the dark strands. In fact she's positive that's what he's thinking about when his mouth pulls into a dark smirk.

"I have to go..."

"Then go." He pushes his face into the crook of her neck. His teeth dragging across her skin. Yeah she doesn't want to go. He feels all together too good.

The alarm goes off again and his hands climb her legs. She steps away from him before he can find out that_ yes the god damn alarm made her hot._

She has a quick shower to get the sex smell off her skin and pulls on some sweats and grabbing her dress and purse rushes off to meet the rest of the bridal party.


	5. Madison

**Madison**

* * *

"Have a rough night?" Madison asks the second that she steps into the room.

"Long night." She returns.

"Not from what I remember." She hisses in return and it boils her blood.

She shrugs and drops her bag to the floor allowing for some lady to take the dress from her, she looks Madison up and down, "Yeah I can understand, I wouldn't really want to fuck you either." She tells her darkly.

"_Cindy_!" Her mother yells from the other side of the room.

"Madison that's enough." Carol's voice blasts across the room but Madison seems to wave it away like not listening to her is the most natural thing in the world.

"So what? Are you collecting them? First Beaver now Dick? What's next?" Madison's face twists in that familiar cruelty she can't help be think might have been hers if the hospital hadn't fucked up, "conjugal visits?"

It's a good thing the hair stylist hadn't handed Mac her mimosa yet, because she would have dropped it. She lunges at Madison, the blond dropping her magazine and widening her stance. She's come a long way from the glass jawed little bitch she'd punched in eighth grade.

She pulls back her fist and it falls short, her mother's hand wrapped around her wrist. Behind Mrs. Mackenzie Lauren is holding back Madison.

"What did I say!" Lauren is shouting even thou the room is now silent.

Both she and Madison sag and recite, "No fighting until after the wedding photo's."

"Thank you." Lauren stands back from Madison and her mother steps away and for a long moment there's no movement. The air is charged and it seems like everyone thinks they'll brawl anyway.

She thinks she might, she just wants to pull her down from her ivory tower, just rip her world apart.

Let her feel as weird about this union of their siblings as she does.

She takes her mimosa and sits down in the barber's chair designated for her.

Lauren is standing in front of her hands on her hips, "So is it true? Are you staying with Dick?" She asks and there is a smile on her lips that makes her wonder if maybe she's got a little bit of Madison in her after all.

"I am-" she can see her mother open her mouth to protest, "it's not a big deal it's just for the weekend."

"Are you sleeping with him?" Lauren is practically buzzing but that might have something to do with the four Starbucks cups she saw in the garbage. Madison's eyebrow raises as she pretends not to be interested.

"I am."

"Cindy." Her mother sounds scandalised.

"What? It's not like were getting married or planning a family." Or like she's really batting them off with sticks back home. Until yesterday the only person who'd seen her in her underwear had been Veronica and that had made for a very awkward brunch, "It's just for the weekend and then I'm going to see if I can con him into driving me to the airport."

Maybe get one last round of crazy hot sex before she goes back to new york _the land of celibacy._

If Madison wants to say something she keeps a lid on it. She's probably imaging it but she looks kind of impressed by her confession. With the fact that she is using him and not the other way around.

They fall into a semi comfortable conversation about the wedding and the honeymoon.

They are going camping because well Ryan and Lauren is super excited. They've been camping before but never for this long before and she can't help but wonder if the hospital put _any_ kids in the right houses because it doesn't sound like something an 09er should be excited about.

"Bradley took me sailing for our honeymoon." Madison gushes, smiling brightly at her mother, at _her_ mother... Natalie...god this is getting confusing even in her head, "It was so sweet he had no idea what he was doing."

"How is everything at work for Brad anyway?" Natalie asks like this is a topic they've discussed before, like they've talked to each other all the time. It burns her a little bit.

That's _her_ mother.

Madison waves the concern away.

She can't remember what Brad does, probably something in finance or real estate, something where he's making money hand over fist she' sure.

"He's a shoe in for the next election."

Politics? He's seemed like a well spoken man. She hadn't really talked to him beyond greetings and pass the whatevers. She could absolutely see Madison Lady MacBething it behind the scenes.

"Sheriff Reeves, does have a certain ring to it."

She chokes a little on her third mimosa. Okay she was not expecting that. She can't wait to tell Veronica that Madison still has her thing for law enforcement. She bites her tongue to stop from asking the blond if _she's collecting sheriff's_. She instead asks how she met Brad anyway.

Madison looks embarrassed and she knows she's hit pay dirt.

"Oh don't be embarrassed Madi, it's hilarious." Lauren smiles brightly and turns to her, "he arrested her."

"He what now?"

Oh god that is probably the best thing she's ever heard. _ever_.

"He arrested her for, oh Madi do you want to tell her? You tell it so good!" Madison just shakes her head and excuses herself to the bathroom, "okay so Madi was having a bit of a rough time after her first husband cheated on her. So she stood outside the woman's house and screamed at her and cried and ripped a piece of the chicks fence off and just starts wailing on her car.

So of course she called the police.

Brad arrived on the scene and took the piece of wood out of her hands and put her in the cruiser. Brad told her after he'd found out what happened that the real crime was that someone cheated on her.

A year later and they were married.

The wedding was so pretty wasn't it Natalie?" Lauren smiles at her mother and everything in her body freezes.

Why would her mother be at Madison's wedding and why the hell didn't she know about it? That was five years ago at least.

"It was lovely..." She smiles softly but won't look her in the eyes.

_Fuck_.

Madison knows.

"I have to..." she points the way Madison went and stumbles off quickly.

Madison is leaning against the wall looking at her phone. Waiting...for her?

"So you know then..." She ask quietly and her nails are in her palm, a red-hot anger boiling in her because they told Madison but they still haven't told her?!

"Yeah, Veronica let the cat out of the bag in a rather cruel letter I'm pretty sure she didn't actually mean to sent. You know those kind you write to get all the mad out and then burn?"

She's written a couple of those for Madison as well although most of hers go undelivered to a dead boy.

"Why do you think you're mom's my baby sitter?" Ugh that's actually really nice of her.

"Do they know you know?"

"No, do they know you know?"

"Carol and Mr. Sinclar..." it dawns on her that she doesn't know her father's name and she feels like scum.

"Jack." Madison supplies with a sigh and looks her up and down, eyes drilling right into her, "this doesn't mean anything changes." Madison tells her firmly.

"Good." Having Madison as her own personal villain isn't something she is willing to part with, it's been a constant for years, "so the switch is where a lot of my distaste for you comes from...you too?" She asks in an effort to be civil at least until the wedding is over.

"No. I hate you for a completely unrelated reason." Madison flips her long blond hair and goes back into the main room leaving her leaning against the wall wanting desperately to know why Madison hates her so much.

She has no intention of changing or making amends, she just wants to enjoy whatever it is just a little bit more.


	6. Wedding

**Wedding**

* * *

She waits a little before she goes back to the rest of the group. Her mother looks worried and Madison looks at her with heat in her eyes but other than that everything is pretty smooth.

If her mother expects her to throw a fit about spending time with her grandson she doesn't get it. It sits in her stomach wrong but she's not a monster and she isn't having an on purpose baby any time soon so let her get her fill by babysitting little Benny.

She stores her conversation with Madison away to tell Veronica when she gets back. She is going to love the story of Madison and Deputy Brad, she's not so sure about telling her about Dick. But then again her father probably already told her, it's the main reason her cells in her purse and turned off.

She doesn't want to have to deal with that any sooner than she has to and if Veronica was desperate to talk about it she's sure the girl would find a way.

* * *

"God Lauren you look amazing.." She bites her lip to pull herself back together. No ridiculous shows of emotion here. It's only her little sister all dressed up in white and silk and lace and getting married. No big deal.

Madison is standing next to her with a soft look, the same king of look she has on her face when she's looking at Benny.

It's love.

Something she had thought for a very long time she wasn't capable of.

"It's good?" Lauren asks nervously fiddling with the blue and silver bracelet that bares her Ryan's letters.

"It's great." She tells her.

"I hate agreeing with her but you look to die for." Madison chimes in.

Lauren stands in front of the pair of them and looks like she's going to cry. She straightens Mac's necklace and tucks a piece of hair behind Madison's ear.

"I have the best looking bridesmaids." she smiles softly and the music in the church changes and she bounces nervously.

Jack opens the door, his hand over his eyes, Madison's rolls her eyes and Lauren smothers a smile and she knows this is something he's done countless times before. This should be an inside joke that she is on the inside of...

"Everyone decent in here?" he asks and Lauren laughs moving to him.

"Dad..." She pulls his arm down and pulls him further into the room.

"All my girls look beautiful." He bites his lip but his eyes get wet.

Madison and Lauren groan.

Mac looks down at her shoes, dyed violet silk, they match the dress, and give her something to focus on instead of her father who had obviously meant her in the compliment. Her dad would never say something like that. He was a quiet man, a man of few words and she figured she liked it like that. She figured that he would put his hand on her shoulder and they'd look at each other and she would just know he was proud of her and that he loved her.

She liked that and she didn't realise how much until now.

"All right girls out you go." he smiles and waves them away and she brushes quickly at her eyes and heads down the aisle, flowers in her hands.

held too tight.

A quick look around the church and she spots Dick, smirking at her until he locks eyes with her and an odd concern floods his face.

She pulls her eyes away from him and focuses on Ryan. on her baby brother all grown up. He's bouncing nervously on his heels all tightly wound nerves.

At the end of the aisle she pauses at her brother and pulls him into a too tight hug.

"I love you so much. You know that right?"

"Yeah Cindy, I love you too, now chill I'm trying to get married here." He returns the hug quick and she stands aside to let Madison take her spot next to her.

The look on her brothers face as Lauren appears seals the deal. IT's weird but everything in Neptune is weird. Madison had known all this time that her sister was marrying her brother but she seemed to be completely unworried and unshaken by the idea and now she can truly see why.

They look at each other like a black and white movie, like this love with be forever and she finds she actually believes it.

They belong together and somehow by tangling there families more everything is finally sorted and right.

She cries.

Madison cries.

Both mothers cry.

Lauren keeps a pretty good lock on everything until the ring slips onto her finger.

She walks back down the aisle arm in arm with one of the frat brothers she had bailed out of jail. In fact it's Jason, the one who had lost his pants in a duel with a street post (she didn't question it but on the drive home she had seen a stop sigh with a pair of jeans tied around it). He'd left the station in a pair f her purple Hearst sweats.

"So Rye tells me that your speech involves Hell night..."

She doesn't have a speech.

_Thank god._

She'd pain Ryan off months ago to get out of it. And in true Ryan form he had completely forgotten all about their deal in the excitement.

"It might."

If she did have a speech it would absolutely involve hell night.

"Could it not?" I'm hoping to actually get laid tonight." He whispers and she can't help but laugh, she laughs all the way outside until she watches the new Mr. and Mrs. Mackenzie drive off.

* * *

She's standing alone outside the church for all of two minutes before Dick's arm is around her waist, his mouth against her ear, "You okay?"

She shrugs because while she certainly does feel better it'll take a while for it to really be okay seeing her bio parents in the family.

"So I heard that your little speech mentions Ryan and Jason's hell night..." There's humour in his voice and his breath is hot against her skin but she's watching her father lift up Benny onto his shoulders.

She remembers hell night, they had woken her up in the middle of the night and while she had been furious she had also been a little happy to be Ryan's phone call. Of course it wasn't until she was piling him and all his drunk frat buddies into her car that she found out that they called Dick first.

It still burnt honestly.

"Where we're you for hell night anyway? I thought the frat was always there to bail each other out?"

He stands up to his full height and shrugs, "Mexico I think? With Logan?" He stuffs his hands into his pockets and she leans up to brush some hair out of his eyes.

"Where is Logan anyway? Last time I saw you, you too were connected at the hip."

Dick rolls his eyes and lets her straighten out his collar.

"He's holed up at the beach house. Apparently his agent thinks I'm a distraction! Kicked out of my own home. Can you believe it? Me a distraction?"

"Yes, absolutely." She smiles up at him and he fiddles with a springy curl in her hair.

It feels almost natural doing these things with Dick, these soft touches that would normally make her itch with the intimacy of it all.

"Wait. You live in a beach house?"

"You didn't still think I lived at The Grande did you?"

Gift horse. mouth.

"How long have you been kicked out of your house?"

"God like a month. It's not like it was hard to find a place but still I'd rather keep work and home separate you know?"

"So you own the..."

"Yep."

"So you could have bumped someone for me."

"Coulda, but where's the fun in that?" He leans down and kisses her and she can't help but agree that this is much better than a mid-range hotel room with nothing to help her get through this weekend but pay-per-view porn and a mini-bar.

Someone clears their throat and Dick pulls away from her.

It's Madison.

"We have to go now." She tells her in what could easily be described as a mom voice. Firm and disapproving.

"Fine." She starts to pull away but Dick grabs a hold of her hand.

"I'll drive you."

She looks back at him and then at Madison, she's just seething.

"Uh okay." she turns to Madison, "I'll see you there."

Madison flips her hair in a way that shouldn't be allowed for a thirty-four year old mother but that she still executes with a painful accuracy, "I bet your just thrilled huh." Her voice is sharp and dark and she's not sure why she's choosing now to be a bitch.

She had figured that they had come to a sort of understanding, at least until after the photographs.

It's not until Dick's fingers tighten around hers that she realises that she isn't talking to her.

"Leave it Madi." Dick's voice is dark and solid , his eyes narrowed at the blonde.

A cruel smile pulls across her face and she knows from years of being on the wrong end of that, that something bad is coming.

"You know she's not staying right, she isn't going to fall in love with you and move back so you can have you're happily ever after _Richard_. If you think what you have going on with her is deeper than just some fling for her your wrong."

His grip on her gets painful and his jaw is set.

"Shut up Madison, it's none of your business."

She laughs turning her hard eyes on her, "I'll see you at the beach Ghostworld. Don't be late." She turns on a sharp heel and heads over to the rest of their family.


	7. A Mackenzie Family Tradition

**A Mackenzie Family Tradition**

* * *

Dick pulls her towards the car and she lets him, sure nothing Madison had said had _actually_ been a lie, she had no intentions of staying but her words just seemed to strike at Dick.

This was a fling.

Come monday she was getting on a plane back to New York to her real life, far away from the drama of Neptune and messed up family connections and haunted past loves. Where the only drama in her life was meeting her deadlines and those stupid board meetings she hated.

The drive all the way to the beach is silent and she is positive that Dick has never been quiet for so long in his entire life.

"Are you okay?" She asks quietly.

There's a long silence in which Dick seems to be strangling the steering wheel, "I know you're not staying." He blurts out finally.

"Okay..."

"I can't believe she's still being a bitch about it, it was like twenty years ago almost." He huffs dropping his head to the steering wheel and turning to look at her.

"What was?"

He bites his lip like he's trying to decide if he should tell or not. He lets out a long sigh and drops his eyes from hers, "I may have said your name during sex..."

"What? That's not _that_ big a deal. Just one times not that big a deal it happens. I mean it's not like it was the first time she'd..."

Dick is damningly quiet.

"Please tell me it wasn't..."

"It may have been the first time. And a couple times after that." He concedes.

And okay maybe she kind of gets it now, she can't even imagine the burn that would be, if Cassidy had said Madison's name she would have melted down and for it to keep happening. For him to apparently want her instead. A consistent reminder that she was a consolation prize. Yeah she'd hate her too.

_God and after knowing about the switch._

She wondered how much worse that would make it. That she not only was smart and so much like Lauren that it was impossible to deny that she would have fit in better but even the boy she had chosen, the boyfriend she'd had practically her whole life would have preferred her as well?

"How often did this happen Dick?" She hadn't realized that Dick even knew she existed until she'd showed up hand in hand with his brother. How could he have possibly wanted her like that when she had barely knew he was alive.

"I don't know every once in a while. Some days you were just super hot, it's not my fault you're just fucking adorable." He reaches out and pokes her on the nose, "You were all disgruntled and super smart and hot and kinda this sarcastic quiet. I thought you'd be great in the sack,"

"Dick..."

"I wasn't wrong." He smiles and her smile drops.

"Dick I'm not-"

"Don't Mac." He puts his fingers against her mouth, "Look I know what this weekend is, I'm not stupid, well not _that stupid_. I am a hundred percent up for having a weekend fling. We're cool."

"Okay..." She had this heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach that they weren't cool at all.

"But we are filling up this weekend with so much sex they will have to wheel you onto that plane. You understand me?"

She smiles brightly at him as she opens the door, "Yes Dick."

* * *

She hates wedding photos they always look the same and she's positive that Madison is somehow going to pull some of her evil magic mojo and the worst possible photo of her will be sitting in her brother's house for all of eternity.

She can see Dick talking to Deputy Brad and everything seems pretty amicable. Patiently waiting for this whole thing to be over so they could have more sex. Something she is absolutely for.

There's a lull in the photographs to take more of just Ryan and Lauren.

She's standing next to Madison trying to empty her heels of sand.

"So did Dick ask you to marry him yet?" She asks and it sounds cold and cruel.

"Of course not."

"Not as good in bed as he thought you'd be? Bit of a disappointment I'm sure." Madison's voice is soft and her mouth is barely moving like she doesn't want anyone to think they are actually talking to each other.

She grinds her back teeth and her hands ball into fists.

No.

She is not going to let Madison whatever her new last name is get to her.

"Can't satisfy any Casablanca's huh... That must sting." Madison turns to look at her, her eyes dark and cruel and holding not a single drop of the women she was now, the mother and sister she'd seen glimpses of. No this was all teenage Madison, cruel and power-hungry, "its true that Beaver couldn't get it up right? That after everything after all that waiting he just...didn't want yo-"

Her words are eaten up by her fist.

If Madison was pushing for a fight for something to push her over the edge she found it but her reward wasn't the slap shed been prepared for.

The blonde staggers backward and the joyful sounds of the beach are suddenly silenced.

"You bitch." Madison hisses like she wasn't expecting a fight. Madison launches herself at Mac and with widened stance the blonde smacks right into her chest and they skid backwards.

A flash of pain bursts to life in her mouth as her cheek meets Madison's fist.

Her face feels warm but she doesn't care. She sends a left hook across the girls face. She's pretty sure she's trying to do as much damage to her stupid pretty face as possible.

"Mac!"

"Cindy!"

"Madison!"

Their names ricochet off them. In their own little world.

"You never you have survived life as an 09er!" Madison spits blood onto the sand next to her.

Mac winds up and slams her fist into the side of Madison's head and the girl crumbles into the sand.

"You never would have survived a Mackenzie family reunion." She steps back away from the puddle of silk and girl, Madison is looking up at her, "welcome to the family _bitch_."

"Cindy what are you doing?" Natalie pulls her roughly aside as Lauren and her other mother and Deputy Brad gather around the fallen Madison.

"Proving that its nurture over nature." Her mothers grip on her arm softens.

"Oh honey. You don't need to prove that to anyone." Her mother whispers her voice full of the words she can't seem to say.

Her father stops next to them. Runs a thumb across her swelling cheek.

"You should ice that soon baby girl."

"I will dad."

"You been working on your hook?" He asks picking her hand up gently.

"Well I do work in security." She bites back a smile as her fathers smile slowly creeps across his face.

"Mac." Ryan calls her attention and she moves to him.

"Hey I'm not sorry or anything so..."

"Nah its cool just keep it on the down low till the reception maybe? Cause if Lauren throws a fit about this you know I have to take her side right." He raises his hand and waves Dick over whose standing on the side line not sure what to do with himself, "hey can you take Mac somewhere till the reception in a couple of hours?"

"Yeah I think I can manage that." He is trying really hard not to leer at her but he isn't managing very well because Ryan makes a vomit sound and walks away.

They don't speak to each other until there back in the car.

"That wasn't about me was it..."

"No... Not really."

"O... okay."

He might be disappointed. In fact he is totally disappointed.

"I'm sorry would have been better for you if it had been?"

"It would have been better for me if you fought like a girl and not like a dude. I thought you were going to knock her the fuck out."

"What can I saw I brawl like a Mackenzie."

"Yeah brawl is definitely the word."

"Why do you sound so turned on when you say brawl."

He shrugs as he pulls out of the parking lot, "cause I am."

"I thought it wasn't good for you since I didn't rip her clothes and pull her hair."

"I said it would have been better I did not say that it wasn't good. In fact."

He pulls off into an empty parking lot and turns the car off.

"Dick..."

"Uh huh..." He asks pulling her into his lap.

"We aren't going to have sex in your car again." She laughs.

"Oh we most certainly are because fuck you look good."

She turns to look in the rear view mirror and can see that her cheeks been cut. Fucking wedding ring.

His mouth is on her neck and one hand gripping her hip tightly and pulling her down into him, the other hand making its way up her leg under the mass of fabric.

"Dick..."

"Oh come on you loved it last time."

"Last time it was dark and we got caught." She reminds him but makes no effort to remove his hands from her or even to remove herself from his lap.

His fingers reach her underwear and he smiles into her skin because she's making a lot of talk but she's still totally turned on.

His fingers rub against her before dipping in.

She moans out and her hands slide down his body to make quick work of his zipper because with his fingers sliding into her she can't think of a single thing wrong with this car sex plan.


	8. Public Indecency

**Public Indecency**

* * *

She had never had sex in a car before this trip and now she's double checking that box.

God she'll check that box whenever possible.

Windows fogged up the fabric of her dress pushed back away from his lap. His suit jacket thrown into the passenger seat, his tie undone, hanging down, the fabric locked around her wrists.

She's using it as leverage and she's sure it's going to mark his neck all to hell but he seems to like it a little rough.

He's managed to undo the top part of her dress and push it down to expose her chest and if the windows weren't practically frosted she'd stop him but his mouth is made out of magic and he's thrusting up into her as much as their position allows and she wouldn't stop him now for a million bucks.

She's so close, she can feel it tingling across her body. She grinds down into him trying to push herself over all the more urgently.

His teeth scrape across her skin, his fingers dig into her skin and he pushes hard up into her and that does it. The noise that pushes out of her mouth is low and animal and she falls backward onto the steering wheel.

Displayed and normally she'd be so embarrassed but there's something different about having sex with Dick... of course it could be that she's just too sated to care.

Dick runs a heavy hand down her chest and she can feel him moving inside her, picking up speed and he looks like a beautiful mess.

Panting for breath his tie half down a bright red mark against his neck, eyes unfocused.

"Dick..." She whispers and his eyes squeeze tight and his grip on her hip tightens, she's worried he's going to snap her in half.

She pushes herself up away from the steering wheel only to have him push her back down.

"I want to watch." He manages.

Its weird being observed like this but his eyes are burning into her skin as he picks up his pace like he's putting her to memory. And he probably is if he's liked her like this for as long as he apparently has.

This is a fling for her, a happy surprise, for him its some sort of fantasy fulfilment.

She reaches out and softly touches his face. He leans into the touch and the softest little sound comes out of him.

"Dick..." She says his name again and she can feel him twitch, almost there, "Dick I " whatever she was going to say is cut off by the harsh tapping against the fogged window.

Dick flops forward onto her chest, "Seriously? Again?" His tongue paints a wide stripe across her collarbone biting it, marking his spot for later. She pulls away from him sitting back onto the passenger seat trying desperately to do her dress back up.

She can't get it by herself.

She grabs Dicks suit jacket and quickly puts it on.

Dick rolls down the window, "I swear if this is Ronnie's dad again I'm going to punch him right in the god damn face."

It isn't Mr. Mars.

It's the _actual_ sheriffs department.

Worse than that its Deputy Leo.

Dick sags, "What can I do for you officer?" He asks but she can hear the strain in his voice.

"You could stop having sex in public places Casablancas. You know I have to take you in this time right?"

"Oh come on Leo!" Dick leans out of the window and looks around. "It's an empty parking lot no one saw."

"Then why did I get a call about it Dick?"

She's not sure how she feels about Dick being on first name basis with Deputy Leo or rather Deputy Leo being on first name basis with Dick.

Exactly how many times has he done this? She has no right to be mad and she's not. Jealous a little maybe, embarrassed absolutely.

Deputy Leo looks across the car to her but they've never actually met before and she thanks god because she just knows that he'd be on the phone to Veronica about this little indiscretion.

"She's a lot classier than your usual Casablanca's, all right the both of you out and in the cruiser. You know the drill Casablancas." He opens the door for Dick and has the decency to avert his gaze as Dick does his pants up.

She's sitting in the back of the cruiser trying to do her dress up under his suit jacket, "You know this isn't what my brother mean about keeping me on the down low until the reception."

"Did he say down _low_? I thought he said down _town_." He returns pushing her hands away and doing up the dress for her.

"Ha ha." She grumbles but has to smother a smile.

* * *

"Cindy Mackenzie..." Leo says slowly looking at the paperwork she'd just filled out and then carefully back at her, "are you Mac?"

"Yeah..."

"Veronica's Mac?"

"Uh yeah, I guess."

"Do you want me to call Keith to pick you up after the mug shot?"

"Mug shot!" Its my first offence!"

"New policy."

She doesn't really believe him, he's biting back laughter and she has a horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach. Maybe she's just hungry or maybe she'll get back to the apartment she shares with Veronica and find this mug shot blown up and framed.

She gets her mug shot taken anyway.

She just wants out of this stupid place.

She goes to pay Dicks bail but she doesn't have her purse. She has her drivers and twenty bucks

"Doesn't Logan usually bail him out?" She asks Leo.

He nods and doesn't look up from whatever he's doing on the computer.

"I already called, it went straight to voice mail with a very long winded message not to be disturbed. In fact part of the message says to leave him in holding until he's finished his new novel."

"Can I just see him?" She asks with every intention of using his own money to bail him out.

"No, and he doesn't have his wallet anyway." Leo still doesn't look up from the paperwork.

She sighs heavily, "Can I have his address please." She asks and he smirks but slides a piece of paper with the address across the desk for her.

"I'll be right back."

"I doubt that."

* * *

It takes the entire twenty bucks to get to the beach house Dick apparently shares with Logan.

It's a beautiful house and she feels a thrill of jealousy over the sheer amount of space.

She pounds on the door.

No answer.

She's not that surprised if he's kicked out Dick and isn't answering his calls why would he answer the door.

She kicks the door angrily before moving around to the back of the house.

Logan is sitting at a table outside under an upstairs balcony clacking away at his laptop.

"Hey." She calls for his attention and he looks up so fast that he almost falls out of his chair.

"Mac? You are aware that this is breaking and entering right?"

"The gate was unlocked at most its unlawful entry."

He smiles at that and makes note of something.

"You always dress up for b n' e's?"

She looks down at herself and for a moment she had forgotten that she was still in violet silk and a tailored suit jacket.

"I need money to bail out Dick." She tells him as firmly and as monotone as possible. She's hoping that if it sounds boring enough he won't ask any other questions.

"Why exactly does he need to be bailed out?" He asks eyebrow cocked.

So much for sounding boring.

"Because he's in jail." She offers.

"And why is he in jail _this time_?" He's not going to give her any money or a lift to the station for that matter without the story. But just because she knows that doesn't mean she's going to offer any more than she needs to.

"Public indecency."

"What _exactly_ was he doing this time."

She sighs heavily and moves to the patio. She takes a long drink of his open beer.

"We where having sex in his car okay can we just go now?"

"You were doing what now?" He fumbles with a note pad and is staring at her like this means so much more than she thinks it should.

God did Logan know he had feelings for her too?

Had Cassidy for that matter...

Had she been the only one in the dark? Not that she really thought it would have made a difference. Teenage and even pre-teen Dick had been an absolute ass that she wouldn't have spit on if he was on fire.

"I'm not saying it again Echolls you heard me."

"Well we aren't going to the station until I hear at least three sordid details." He tells her and settles back into his chair.

There is half a vegetarian pizza on the table.

She sits down across from Logan and slides off the suit jacket before she grabs a slice.

Logan points at the bruising teeth marks on her collarbone.

"Didn't finish?"

"It's weird that you know that about him. I just feel like someone needs to tell you that."

He scribbles a note down and she doesn't want to know what the hell it's about.

"I can wait all day Mackenzie." He informs her and starts typing again.

"I'm in no rush."

"So _you_ finished then."

She just takes another slice of pizza, its answer enough for him.


	9. Research

**Research**

* * *

Logan observes her silently for a while and she does her best to occupy her time with the eating of pizza and gazing out into the ocean trying to pretend like she doesn't notice him watching her.

Its been years since she's seen him.

He'd gone and made something of himself in that time it felt almost entirely like he'd done it to spite Veronica.

God she wishes she hadn't overheard _that_ particular fight.

Veronica and Logan were _epic_ and that fight had been a violent end to something she had always kind of considered a constant.

_He would never be anything more than a trust fund brat an entitled asshole. Volatile, and she wasn't building her life around a god damn volcano._

_She was jealous and untrusting and if she couldn't see how much he had changed then she could..._

Well they had both devolved into swearing and throwing shit at that point.

They had even invoked the holly name (Lilly).

She had thought they were going to need a new door the way Logan had slammed it. She could have sworn he would have splintered it.

The next year Logan Echolls was a novelist. A good and proper writer.

Well she enjoyed his works anyway.

Pulp noir about a young man who had had everything ripped away and the tragic love he shared with the closed off blond from his childhood, equally jaded and running a rival private detective agency.

She's read every novel, hoping to catch glimpses of a character that's her somehow, she's fairly certain that she's Phil the techno wiz that works at Veronica's agency.

She's read all six of them, she has them all on her kindle, Veronica had burnt the first one she had bought. She's more than a little tempted to peak over the laptop and see what they're up to this time. What seedy underbelly they'll be exploring, how Dash and Sammy are going to get caught up in each other this time? If Sammy will ever decide that the love they share is more important than her pride.

"Why do you want to know sordid details anyway Logan they can't be better than what you could come up with."

He smirks at her, "How do you know what I could come up with?"

She shrugs, "Oh I don't know I've heard you write novels...not that I've ever read any."

"Sure sure and I don't know Mackenzie, you and Dick, shared trauma coming together after all these years. How did Dick possibly get you to A _have sex with him_ and B _do it in his uncomfortable sports car_?"

"It's not that uncomfortable..." Or maybe it is and she just hadn't cared. Either time.

"Come on Mackenzie if you want me to bail him out I need two and a half sexy details."

She wonders if the bite mark counts as a half a detail or if she could just wait him out.

"Why on earth do you want to know that kind of stuff about Dick?"

He shrugs but he deletes a large paragraph on the laptop and starts over.

"Research I guess."

She leans back in the chair and enjoys the feel and taste of the ocean breeze. It tastes different out here. The Atlantic just didn't have that same feel to it and don't even get her started on the Hudson.

"So your here for your brothers wedding then?"

"Yeah."

"And...she didn't..."

"Veronica had to be in court." She supplies, "You think I would have propositioned Dick if Veronica had been here?"

"Wait _you_ propositioned _him_?" His eyes are wide and she knows now that it must have sounded like some cruel trick to Dick at first.

Perhaps that's why he had seemed so fazed.

"I needed a place to stay. He's very accommodating." She replies because he looks like he's about to info dump all over her and she's not sure she wants him to. In fact she knows she doesn't want him too. She doesn't want to know any more about Dick pining for her like some great american novel.

She just wants to enjoy his _company_ and maybe his company and get through this stupid weekend and go back home.

"You asked to stay with him?"

"Well I asked if he wanted to have sex and the place to stay kind of came after."

She doesn't want to talk about this.

"Can't we talk about something else? You want to hear about the other time we had sex in his car? How about that instead?"

"The other ti-no! Mac you need to stop." Logan closes his laptop and focuses completely on her, "you can't do this to him."

"We already talked about it Logan. He said it was fine. That he was fine."

"And when has _fine_ ever actually meant fine? Your going to have your fun with him and go back off to your life in new York and he'll be hear. A god damn fucking mess. And I'll be stuck with him."

"He wouldn't be-"

"Oh I'm sorry have you lived with him for like twenty years? Some years I list him as a god damn Dependant." Logan snaps back and she's surprised, "I think I'll know what'll happen when you leave. Because he may know that you are leaving and that you don't love him but god he wants you too so bad that when you leave it'll be just like..." He fades off and closes his laptop.

Veronica. It'll be just like when Veronica shuts him out.

"It's not like that." She responds weakly but she's not so sure its true.

Logan pushes away from the table and walks over to the cooler.

"What is it like then?"

"Do I have to know? Do I have to decide right now what it is? Why can't I just enjoy his company?"

Logan sets down another beer in front her, "Because that's not how human nature works. We're a horribly insecure bunch. Maybe it could be that way if you still lived here..."

She doesn't want to live here. Neptune is a mess of corruption and nepotism and she doesn't want to lose herself in its muck again.

"Do you even like him as a person or do you just like what he's got in his pants."

She opens her mouth but he puts his hand up to stop her.

"No. Really think about it...I'll wait." He opens his laptop back up and starts typing away.

He keeps looking up at her and then typing more urgently.

She tries to think about Dick. About all the parts around the sex. The soft touches and easy conversation and how she just kinda feels better when he's around.

She does like him. Like as a person and the weirdest thing is she's not even all that surprised that she does.

"I like him." She tells Logan and he stops typing to look at her.

"I know."

"Then why did you ask!"

He shrugs closing his laptop, "because you didn't." He stands from the table and goes to the kitchen door, "are you coming or am I bailing him out while you wait naked on his bed?"

"Do you have and vegan whipped cream?"

"No..."

"Then I guess I'll go with you."

"Gross Mac."

"You brought it upon yourself." She follows him into the house. Its beautiful from the inside as well. This big bright airy thing that makes her jealous because she basically lives in a box with Veronica, "it's a good-looking house." She tells him as she follows him through the house towards she assumes the garage.

"There's an extra bedroom." He tells her pressing the garage door opener.

"I'm not moving in Logan."

"Did I say you were?" He doesn't turn around, just walks to a jeep and gets in. He's got that look on his face that she remembers from what felt like a million years ago. That _I am all-knowing_ look that makes her skin tight. Makes her want to scream out _you don't know __me, _"It's just an interesting fact... another interesting fact the walls are really thick."

"Logan..."

"I'm just saying."

"Just drive Logan."


End file.
